Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving holiday.  We had a 4 day weekend and got to spend time with both sides of the family, as well as enjoy some down time at home.  We were happy to have had the chance to spend time with Boyd on Thanksgiving because just a few days later, sadly, he passed away:(  He was a great husband to Grammy for almost 2 decades and we'll miss him.  Rest in peace Boyd!

Thanksgiving dinner at Donna & Emil's

Boyd, Grammy & Uncle Mike

My friend from work, Shannon, joined us for Thanksgiving dinner and was a fun addition.  She's from Canada, so Donna & Emil told her all about their trip across Canada last summer.  

Stinkers enjoyed being the center of attention all day.

Thanksgiving hosts!

Before we headed over to Donna & Emil's we enjoyed a walk in Open Lands.  It was in the 60's!

Off the beaten path, following a deer trail that sort of dead ended:)

What a difference a day makes!  The next day,  freezing temps!

Jason's 24th birthday party on Friday night.  Great chance to see my Grandma and all my Mackus side relatives since I didn't see them the day before on Thanksgiving.

Saturday we had a very fun lunch at Jen & Jeff Miller's new house.  Shelley, Rob & Alyssa were in WI from New Jersey, and Andrea, Kevin and their three girls came over too.  It was such a great reunion!  So many kids running around!

Sparkling grape juice toast to the Miller's beautiful new house!  Josie and Isabelle Yttre clink their glasses.

Left to right:  Alyssa Nolden (3), Isabelle Yttre (5), Eloise Yttre (2 mo) (Kevin holding her), Chase Miller (1), Josie Yttre (2), Elise Miller (almost 3) and Luker Dukerson (2).  Luke loved playing with all those older women!  Chase is pretty little still so he couldn't quite keep up yet, so Luke had the ladies all to himself!

Baby Eloise is SOOO cute!

We had fun hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma over the weekend and enjoyed Mom's yummy ham dinner (with aforementioned horseradish sauce) on Saturday night.  Here is Luke "exercising" with Dad.

On Sunday Luke was running around at my parent's house and fell down - this goose egg was immediate and huge!  It freaked us out, but didn't seem to bother him that much.  It went away after a few hours, but boy was that hard to see on our little guy.  

Even with iPad bribery, he only let us ice his head for about a nanosecond before he was up and about running around again.

Back at it!  Luke loves all the old toys at Grandpa Craig and Grandma Mary's house. 

Below are a couple other fun shots from the week and I also wanted to give a Luke update since I haven't for a few weeks.  Well, not sure if this is new news or not, but he is fully talking and it is awesome.  He is memorizing the words in his favorite books, too.  So if you start reading a sentence and then pause, he can finish the last word or two on many of the pages.  He also remembers the funniest things.  The other day I was pretending to magically pull a toy out of Luke's ear and he said "magic beans!" which is exactly what happened in the "Jack and the Beanstalk" show we saw with Nathan and Ben Sosne in early October.  The peddler pulled magic beans out of Jack's ear!  I was so impressed that he remembered that little detail of the show and connected it to what I was doing 6 weeks later.  Obviously brilliant:)  He is such a parrot, he'll repeat almost everything you say, and in the right context too.  Whenever he leaves the room he says "See you!" (he always forgets the "later" part of that one).  He also tells me to "have a fun day!" when I leave for work.  Ha!  What else?  Hmmm.  Everytime he washes his hands, which he does by himself, he runs back and has to show everyone who is in the room how clean his hands are.  He's so proud of himself.  "Ring around the Rosie" is his new favorite song, but he likes you to walk in a circle holding hands and then as you get to the end of the song swing him around and then by the time "we all fall down" comes you have to lay him on the floor.  That little game makes the adult really dizzy, really fast.  He's really into his music before sleeping, he almost has to have soft lullabies playing to go to sleep at nap time or bedtime.  He will stay in his crib for almost an hour sometimes before falling asleep, just having quiet time and listening to his music.  He's been sleeping really well lately.  We can almost always get a 3 hour nap out of him, and he sleeps 10 hours at night too.  We're enjoying it now before the new baby comes and we can kiss those full nights of sleep good bye for a while.

He zooms his trucks around the house at lightning speed.  He also likes to "dump" himself out of his dump truck.

Elaborate train set up in the basement.  We had to move our pool/ping pong table aside to allow for more play area.  

Terrific Tucson

With Kristin, Cory & PJ, not to mention Katie, Joe & Isabelle, all moving out West to Tucson - it soon became clear that I would need to squeeze in a trip out there before I became too preggers to travel.  Happily we were able to plan an extended weekend just before Thanksgiving to do just that.  Matt stayed home with the Dukerson so I could have a relaxing and fun mini-girls weekend.  Not only did I get to see the new houses, new school, new neighborhoods and new "must do's" of the Tucson area - I got to spend plain ole quality time with my favorite ladies (that's including PJ and Isabelle, of course).  From the moment I got off the plane and Katie & Kristin picked me up for a fun lunch and pedicure, the good times didn't end.  Being with them made me miss them even more when I got back, if that is possible, since it is now quite fresh what I'm missing on a regular basis:)  But I was definitely happy and grateful to get a full dose of them while I could and it will sustain me until Christmas!

This is PJ's cubby at school - she goes to the International School of Tucson and is in the Spanish immersion program.   Paige has become such a big girl even since September.  I found her more like a little girl and less like the small child I think of her as.  It is so fun to be around her, she's so smart and funny!

GORGEOUS views from K&C's GORGEOUS new home.   This pic is from their sweet rooftop deck.  All of their renovations are seriously amazing.  I urge everyone who is able to make a trip out there and stay in their luxurious accommodations!

Their resort-like pool and hot tub, complete with picturesque palm tree.  Kristin and I agree that while the pool fence detracts from the resort like atmosphere, it is certainly a comfort knowing it is there to keep our kiddos safe.  

Front of K&C's new house, on our way out the door for a fun dog walk around the neighborhood.  So weird to see all the dirt and rocks and no grass in all the yards!

Isabelle (left), Isabelle's bow (center), and Katie (right).  Adorableness!!!  We all went out to dinner at one of their favorite places.  

Godmother & Goddaughter:)

We all went to Katie & Joe's temporary home's community pool on Saturday.  The views were also awesome there.

Saturday night Katie, with her Mom's help, made a delicious ham dinner feast!  Yum!

Isabelle and PJ get along great!  Isabelle is crawling now and is seriously the happiest baby I've ever met.  She is  100% sweetness, love love love her!

Ham!  Pass the horseradish sauce! (I'm obsessed with that sauce, by the way.  I literally made my Mom serve it when she had ham at her house a week later.)

Kitty obstruction!  Kristin and I stayed up late watching old music videos on You Tube.  A good use of time!  Did you know actress Debi Mazar starred in one of Madonna's earliest music videos?  Little known fact that now you know!

Sunday trip to breathtaking nearby Sabino Canyon

Loved the little hike at the top of the tram tour.

The tres amigas

Tram time!

The Carpenter's with their new home landscape as a backdrop.

Katie & Joe's new house that they are renovating before they move in, which should be  in December.  Another beautiful home with superb new work done to it.  

Very fun Sunday afternoon pizza dinner and theater show "Scrooge" at the Gaslight Theater.  Weird to go to a classic holiday show when it feels like June outside!

Catnap before FROST, which is only the best gelato this side of the  Atlantic!

Flying away into the sunset...goodbye my loved ones!  Until next time, Tucson!

2nd Cousin Birthday Party (squared)

Last weekend we had the pleasure of attending two birthday parties, both for second cousins.  Luke hadn't been to a kid birthday party for a while, so didn't really know what treats he was in for.  He quickly understood that kid's birthday parties meant three things that he is very supportive of:  other kids, new toys to play with and cake.  We had a breakthrough that he didn't cry when "Happy Birthday" was sung, as he has done almost every time so far.  We think he is either a) getting more mature; or perhaps more likely b)  linking the singing with the cake eating immediately after.  

Jackson Warner (Matt's cousin Drew's son) has his 2nd BD party on Saturday.  His party was race car themed, so cute!   Jackson is in his new car and Luke wants to play with the balloons that were taped to it.

Drew, Aunt Diane, 2nd cousin Lila

Race track - Luke, Orrin and Jackson

Jackson opening his presents.  

On Sunday we had Lila Huffman's 1st bd party (Matt's cousin Justin's daughter)

eating her cupcake

Opening presents.  There were tons of kids there!

Also this week I got to visit a couple of my friends who both recently had babies.  Amy Spears is a friend from work, and Katherine is a friend from business school.  Holding those only weeks-old babies was making this baby in my stomach seem a lot more real!  Soon this will be us again!

Amy and Jax, her 4th!!

Katherine, Eliah & baby Lillian, their 1st,

Miscellaneous pictures from the week.  Luke is talking so much more each week, I can't even keep up with giving the updates.   I think this was the "explosion" they all told me would happen sooner or later.  It is very fun!

More painting of the pumpkins.

Isolene made this little proxy train table for Luke, since he tends to knock over everythikng when it is on the ground.  We'll play for hours with this when it is up on the table.

A "real" train table at the auto repair shop that we had to literally rip Luke away from.

After the pumpkin paint was such a hit, we got him some finger paint which became a messy activity.  Since Luke prefers to not wear clothes anyway, it didn't take much to convince him to paint with just his diaper on.

But then he decided his diaper didn't need to be on either:)